The 1948 Olympic Games

Probably the first great national celebration in Britain in the post-war years was the Olympic games at Wembley Stadium. London had been allocated the 1944 games that were obviously impossible to organise during wartime. Wembley took up the baton in 1948, effectively underwriting the games.

Turf covering the athletics track of the Empire Games of 1924 and 1925 was removed and given a top dressing of cinders from the fireplaces of Leicester. (History does not record why Leicester’s fireplaces were chosen above all others).

Star of the games were Dutch housewife Fanny Blankers-Koen who won four athletics gold medals, and the great Czech runner Emil Zatopek who left a distinguished 10,000 metre field for dead to set a new Olympic record in the event.